Mormon Heretic

With Passover beginning on April 19, I thought it might be nice to look at a new theory of the Exodus.  If you want to see some of the previous theories, click here for my post on Questions about the Exodus.  I just reviewed a video from the History Channel called Bible Battles.  The film analyzes military strategy for many battles in the Bible.  They make the surprising claim that the Israelites in Egypt were not slaves, but were a military unit.  In some ways, another video seems to corroborate this view.  Jim Hoffmeier discussed a mistranslation of the word “elith.”  (The following quote comes from Science of the Exodus, by National Geographic.)

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I finally got around to one of my requests!  Tara and I have been discussing several topics, such as the Priesthood Ban, Polygamy, and Abraham, and the story of Balaam always seems to come up.  She takes the position that Balaam is a fallen prophet, but I think he never was a prophet.  Here’s my case.  What do you think?

Balaam has to be one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible.  He is one of only 7 gentile prophets mentioned in the Bible.  The others are Beor (Balaam’s father), Job and his 4 friends.  My favorite part of the story of Balaam is the talking donkey–it is the only place where an animal speaks (unless you count the serpent in the Garden of Eden.)   Ascertaining Balaam’s character can be a bit of a challenge.  On the one hand, the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24  says the he not only talked with God, but a destroying angel appears to prevent him from cursing Israel.  On the other hand, he is referred to as “the wicked one” in Revelations.  So which is he?

Let’s get some background and a brief synopsis of the story of Balaam.

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The History Channel has a show called “Digging for the Truth.” In season 1, they did an episode called “The Lost Tribe of Israel”, which highlighted the Lemba Tribe in South Africa, which claims to be a Hebrew people who were displaced around 700 BC, about 100 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.  I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between their story, and the story of Lehi.

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After Lehi’s family left Jerusalem, they traveled in the Arabian Peninsula on their way to the “promised land.”  In 1994, an archeaological discovery in Yemen has the same name as mentioned in 1 Ne. 16: 34, “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.

Critics of the LDS church have often chortled at the fact that there is no archaeological evidence in support of the Book of Mormon.  Well, that is now changing, and I would like to discuss what we know about an archeaological site called “Nahom.”

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A few months ago, I posted a topic about Marriage Fitness.  This has become my New Year’s resolution.  I went ahead and bit the bullet by purchasing the Lone Ranger course.  The author is Mort Fertel, and he makes no illusions that his method is a quick or easy solution to a better marriage, but he does guarantee it works, if followed.  Part of the package includes a book with the same name.

He has an interesting perspective on the Biblical story of Rachel and Leah.  As we all know, Jacob (who later changed his name to Israel), greatly loved Rachel.  After working for 7 years to marry Rachel, he was duped into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah, and then had to work another 7 years to marry Rachel.  Fertel makes an interesting note that Jacob didn’t complain that he married Leah, and was satisfied to know that he could still have Rachel.

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My little boy is in kindergarten. Along with the normal Christmas decorations he has been working on, he came home with a menorah, the candle Jews use to celebrate Hanukkah. (Now that I’m finally out of school myself, I plan to post more frequently–it was a tough semester.)

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I just finished a book called “DNA & Tradition”, by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman.  The book discusses evidence of Hebrew DNA, and talks about the science and religion of Judaism.  As part of the discussion, I learned these interesting facts.

The oldest diaspora communities are in Assyria, later conquered by Babylonia (now modern-day Iraq) and Persia (now modern day Iran). They have been there for 2000-2500 years.

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I found this interesting article at MSNBC which references a recently discovered artifact.  It’s not exactly the Holy Grail, but it dates from the time of Christ.  The full engraving on the bowl reads, “DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS,” which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, “by Christ the magician” or, “the magician by Christ.”

So, do you think it references Christ, is it a pagan coincidence, or a fraud?

When most of us hear the word “jihad” or “holy war”, we immediately know that a jihad is not what God wants.  Most of us feel the same when we hear the word “crusade.”  Really, does anyone think God wants people to fight in his name?

In the book of Joshua, Joshua claims to be commanded by God to destroy everyone and everything in what is now the land of Israel. Read more…

My previous post comments had drifted off topic, so I thought I’d post a new topic along those lines.

Gnosticism means “secret knowledge.”  This is not to be confused with the term Agnostic, which means “without knowledge.”  Typically, Agnostic people are without knowledge of God.  Some are atheists, but not all.  Agnostics typically are ambivalent about whether God exists or not.

Gnostics, on the other hand, date from the time of Christ.  Gnostic should probably be considered a generic term, such as Protestant.  For example, while Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc. are all considered “protestant”, they certainly don’t all believe exactly the same.  Protestant is a term to group nearly all “non-Catholic” groups together.  In essence, these groups are “protesting” against some of the beliefs of the Catholic church.

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I’m certainly no DNA expert.

But here’s some thoughts anyway. First of all, finding any sort of Hebrew DNA anywhere in the Americas certainly gives critics of the Book of Mormon pause, as it directly refutes some of their arguments. But how important is this discovery?

Let’s talk about the name Cohen first. As I learned from Quest for the Lost Tribes, the name Cohen represents the Tribe of Levi. This is the priesthood tribe. As we go back to the 12 Tribes of Israel, remember that the Tribe of Levi was given no land of inheritance, but was instead granted the priesthood to administer among the other tribes.

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I recently came across a blog of Zelph, who is struggling with some tough issues in Mormonism.  I also posted a comment in The Milk Ceiling about the Exodus.  I thought I would address some of these issues.

Too often, I think we have a concrete view of religion.  Either something is true, or it is not.  When we learn things that don’t conform to the ways we believe they should, we lose testimony.  This is true of all religions.

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Ok, I probably won’t get too many comments on this, but it is an interesting topic for me. For some quick background, I previously posted on this topic. I recently purchased a copy of “Quest for the Lost Tribes” by Simcha Jacobovichi. In this documentary, he tries to make a case where he identifies most of the lost tribes, and their possible locations throughout the world. He comes up with some startling conclusions.

What is interesting to me about these lost tribes is the connection to the Book of Mormon. The BOM claims that the Nephites were descendants to the Tribe of Manasseh. So I was interested to see what insights the movie might have on this tribe in particular.

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